Tom's and my car are

[ademoglu]

Hi all,

*sel-made*

Let us say that Tom has his own and I also have my own car. Is it OK to say:

- Tom's and my car are high-speed.

I do not want to repeat 'car' so I do not say 'Tom's car and my car are . . .'. I think the sentence sounds as if Tom and I have the same car, if we put 'is' instead of 'are'. But I am not sure.

Thanks.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I would say 'Tom's car and mine', but I am not a teacher.

 

[mawes12]

Or our car.

Not a teacher.

 

[Mrfatso]

Or our car.

Not a teacher.

Not A Teacher

That is the opposite to what ademoglu wants to write, 'our car' implies shared ownership of one car to me.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Or our car.

Do you mean 'our cars'?

 

[mawes12]

Do you mean 'our cars'?

Yes, I was going to put that first but I thought it would be the same as saying 'our car' and I was wrong so I'm sorry about that, ademoglu.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER ***** Hello, Ademoglu: I have found some information that may interest you. It appears that your words "Tom's and my car" would be fine if there were one car and two owners (you and Tom) of that one car. Look at this sentence from one expert: "This is John's and my car." The expert explains that IF we are talking about joint possession and IF we use a personal pronoun (such as "my"), then the noun ("John") must also have an apostrophe. ***** ONLY MY THOUGHTS ***** "Tom and Mona's car goes very fast." The 's refers to "Tom and Mona." They are both the owners of the car. According to that expert, if you were to use a personal pronoun in that sentence, then you would have to use an apostrophe:"Tom's and her car goes very fast." (It is assumed that the listener already knows that "her" refers to Mona.) ***** In your case, of course, I personally would use Matthew Wai's excellent suggestion: "Tom's car and mine ( = my car) go very fast." Source: Edward D. Johnson, The Handbook of Good English (1991), accessed through Google.

Sorry for the format. Technical problems.